lundi 14 mai 2012

PRESS REVIEW

Axe is a
brand of grooming products first launched in 1983 and owned by the company
Unilever; it once was a male-only brand. With the launch of a new fragrance
–Anarchy for him + for her- last January, came a new opportunity to target both
sexes. This has changed the way people
think about the brand and especially about its advertising campaign “The Axe
Effect”, which was considered as sexist. Through the analysis of three
documents about this topic, we will try to understand how the launch of a
fragrance for women changes the way they perceive the brand.

According to Kyle
Marancos, senior brand building manager of Axe, their new
product –Anarchy- is more of an experiment in comparison to the male line,
which is way more developed. Indeed, Axe used to be a male-only brand and all
its advertising campaigns showed insecure young men getting attractive women by
spraying themselves with Axe deodorants. This phenomenon was quite one-sided
and considered sexist by most people, especially by women activists. Besides,
they wrote a petition to Mr. Michael B. Polk, President of Unilever Americas,
to ban all the Axe advertisements that portrayed women as objects of sexual
gratification and as animals unable to resist the sudden irresistible
attractiveness of men wearing Axe products. Axe’s marketing was based on the idea that
“sex sells” and that was proven to be very effective. Indeed, targeting the
young generation is a judicious choice as the only word on their mind is “sex”
and the experiment of it. This is why the brand initially became so popular. However,
some people are worried because the advertisements encourage sexual behavior and
give young men the wrong idea that it is okay to objectify women. Nevertheless,
even if the ads and
commercials portray women in a negative and submissive light, humor helps to play
things down. Axe’s Facebook page is ‘liked’ mostly by women so it shows that
the apparent sexism in Axe’s advertising campaigns won’t stop them from liking
the brand. This information indicates that Axe did not need to launch this
specific product for women to improve their perception and image. However, the
campaign for Anarchy for him + for her, where women are shown equal to men, can
only act as a positive one and might even help the most reluctant of women
activists to have a better perception of the brand.